Venom: The Last Dance tenuously swings into theaters, but the symbiote’s webbing breaks at the box office. The Tom Hardy-led sequel only manages to make an estimated $51 million domestically over its opening weekend (per The Numbers). Unfortunately, that’s a franchise-low for director Kelly Marcel’s film. Both the original Venom ($80.3 million) and its follow-up, Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($90 million) far surpassed what The Last Dance was able to accomplish financially during its debut.
Fortunately, though, The Last Dance tangoed its way to a worldwide opening of $175 million thanks to the movie’s stellar performance overseas. Venom’s final go-round with Hardy’s Eddie Brock (Hardy) brought in an incredible $124 million internationally to give the anti-hero a serious boost after the third installment in the symbiote saga struggled financially in the United States. Depending on the source, The Last Dance cost anywhere from $110 million to $120 million to produce — not accounting for its advertising and marketing price tag. So, Sony could consider Venom 3’s opening a win despite not performing as well as the franchise’s other entries.
The Last Dance made back its production budget over the weekend, but the question now becomes: Will Venom 3 have the staying power to make serious money for Sony? Venom (2018) flirted with the billion-dollar mark ($856.1 million) worldwide during its theatrical run, while Let There Be Carnage managed $501.5 million. Critics have been brutal in critiquing this series, but fans continue to support the Spider-Man anti-hero. However, the new installment does boast the worst CinemaScore (B-) of the three films. The others both received “B+” grades.
Anora Expands, Conclave Opens Strong
Venom: The Last Dance’s long-range box office forecast clearly didn’t come to fruition. However, another newcomer opened strong during its debut. The Ralph Fiennes-led thriller Conclave has been mesmerizing critics, and director Edward Berger’s film boasted an impressive 92% on the Tomatometer against 143 reviews currently posted to Rotten Tomatoes.
Fans have also been kind to Conclave, which registers 82% on the Popcornmeter and holds a “B+” CinemaScore. All of these ingredients helped the movie to a third-place tie over its opening weekend. Yes, third and fourth place were too close to call, at $6.5 million and change each, as Conclave and The Wild Robot both battled for their respective places in the Top 5.
Despite Conclave’s strong start, and The Wild Robot’s persistence, neither the tale about the Pope’s death, nor the animated adventure could stymie the Smile Entity’s momentum. Last week’s No. 1 film, Smile 2, landed the No. 2 spot this weekend with $9.4 million. And then there’s Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s rom-dram rounding out the Top 5. We Live in Time actually increased its output between weekends 15% en route to making another $4.8 million.
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Neon’s Anora expands its theatrical release by 28 cinemas, and director Sean Baker’s romantic dramedy boasts this weekend’s best per-theater average with $25,504. IFC Films’ Memoir of a Snail debuts in limited release (5 venues), but performs well with a total of $69,000 ($13,800 average).
Next, a number of new titles will open the month of November at the box office. In honor of the King of the Monster’s 70th anniversary, Godzilla Minus One returns to theaters on November 1, and the kaiju flick is joined by Juror #2, the Liam Neeson-led Absolution plus Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright’s reunion in Here.